Funds Push Puerto Rican Festival Closer To Reality

NEW BRITAIN — With donations continuing to pour in to save the annual Puerto Rican Festival, you can almost hear the merengue music and taste the ethnic food.

Three days remain before the festival's scheduled start at noon Saturday at High and Lafayette streets. Organizers have raised about $9,000 of the $12,800 needed to pay for live bands, security and sanitation.

If the tally reaches $10,800, a $2,000 challenge grant from the New Britain Foundation for Public Giving will kick in and return the festival for a 10th season.

Just a week ago, prospects were bleak. Distracted this spring by tensions between the Latino community and the business establishment, festival organizers got off to a late start in raising money.

But the outlook has brightened considerably as local businesses and residents have responded in recent days with dozens of donations, large and small.

``Am I happy? What do you think? I feel I can fly,'' Marta Rodriguez, festival chairwoman, said Tuesday evening. ``The festival is going to go, and it's going to be the bigger and better than in other years.''

``This has been marvelous, exhilarating,'' said Saul Sibirsky, a member of the festival committee and an adviser for Hispanic affairs at Central Connecticut State University.

The friction between business and the Latino community earlier this year was sparked by an independent research report quoting several business leaders as saying that Puerto Ricans lacked language skills, work ethic and family values.

After members of the Latino community protested, two of the business leaders publicly apologized and one resigned. A new Latino social action group, PROUD, is seeking ways to strengthen and unite New Britain's fastest-growing community.